It was midnight in New Haven. The streets dimly lit by the orange haze that fell on the snow upon the ground. The snow was undisturbed by human or animal feet until the traipsing of the trifecta of human males as they hurriedly shuffled across the snow covered ground.
“We gotta get out of here now” shouted the tallest of the three. The tall man had a serious look upon his panic stricken face. He was very muscular and looked like a half starved, shaved gorilla. In contrast the smallest of the three look like a well fed pig. He huffed along side them as they ran on. The third man was a Chicago teen, he was average size and build and had a very charismatic look of hero only on the inside he was fear ridden. All three looked behind them like they were stealing a car or very expensive piece of jewelry.
The shaved gorilla, John, wield a modified double-barreled shotgun that could be shot with one hand. As the fat one hobbled along he noticed the blood dripping from his leg left a red drop trail behind them. “Put the gun down John” the middle man had shouted. Doug, The short man, looked up to the gun in his face.
“If he lives he’s gonna turn like raft and then we’ll die”. Doug started to make an objection. Bryan turned away and heard the vivid blast of pain and suffering as Doug screamed in hollow fear and anguish followed by the deafening blast of discharge. The smell of burnt hair and skin dispersed into the bitter winter air. Bryan felt the warm liquid on his face. He caught out of the corner of his eye the decapitated body fall to the ground. As Bryan turned to face John he met with the cold end of the tool that just killed his best friend.
“If you aren’t with me” John said as he cocked the gun “you against me so who’s side are you on”. Bryan, still trying to recover from the shock of watching his friend die and the potential threat now staring in his face, felt the cold icy brush of death lingering on his spine. He knew in his mind that his brother and friend since they were younger, which for Bryan wasn’t that long ago, had become just as bad as the monsters that attacked Raft and changed him into one of them.
Their friend Raft stood six-foot nine and looked like a G. I. Joe on steroids, but underneath where a mans soul meets his being he was as harmless as a teddy bear and revered to anyone he met as a friend. Bryan knew if they can change this man into a cold blooded killer, he knew his brother under stress would make them seem like cute little bunnies.
“I’m with you bro”. As the gun was lifted away from his face the floodgates of relief burst all over him.
“Good” said John “now, let’s go and kill us some monsters and get a cure.” As he watched his brother turned his angry scarred face, Bryan knew he had to kill him before he turned on him.
Both men ran down the street, above them looking down watching, stood the creeper, lurking above and waiting for them to move. As the two men exited the area leaving the dead body where it fell to the ground, the creature jumped forty feet from its perch above like a vulture waiting for its scavenge to die.
As the animal stood on its hind legs it erected to its full height of six-foot nine. It had a headache, and it was dazed and confused as a million thoughts came flooded through its brain. It was like it was remembering a life it never experienced before. He looked down at the dead body in its hand was a chain it grabbed it and looked at the markings another dam burst of memories hit like a train. The searing pain wasn’t enough to cause the animal to fall to its knees.
The animal looked around and saw the crimson river oozed to a slowing gush. It bent down and sniffed the body, then the footprints around it, then the air around him. It stood back into the air and looked into the sky.
An earsplitting, distinct, and distant, screaming howl began piercing the night air. The sound infiltrated the ears of both John and Bryan as they ran down the street. The sound was followed by other distant howls of reconnaissance to the first primitive yell. It had a deeper bass tone, and closer, compared to the other canine figments surrounding them. Bryan’s thoughts crossed into his fear. Perhaps they were the only sapiens left, as for the world it belonged to them, the Ferals.
Before WWIII, nuclear warfare was banned after the war in Iraq in 2010 so the general of the British army had experiments done to create a super race of men with no qualms on killing, but an American scientist stole the formulas and plans and brought them home. In 2011 the first super soldier was created to help the American army. Then to get back at that scientist, Britain with the help of Japanese scientists created the Ferals and unleashed them upon the unsuspecting country due to one mans transgression.
Bryan thought about how this became the way of life as a superior race is taking over the free world. John had been in the carnage that died off and failed as a war. He was one of the few men who had been “upped” as the solders called it, meaning he was genetically enhanced to withstand the pangs of war. When he was 18 before he was enlisted he was 5’11” and weighed 168 lbs., now he was 6’ 1” and 230 lbs. of solid muscle. He never told his family so they thought that he had just grown more and that he bulked in the army, though it was true, Bryan was sure that he would grow just like his brother.
“What time is it Bry?” Bryan looked at his watch.
“Its 1:30 we have less than five hours of night left and we’ve been running for almost a day and a half, can we just camp in an abandoned house or apartment?” John thought this out for a while.
“Yeah” he said with a nonchalant grunt, he remembered that his brother couldn’t stay awake for three days without replenishing sleep like himself “we can fortify in that building there by the pool but we have to dunk ourselves to cover our scents.”
After both men climbed out of the water they immediately grabbed there items that they laid off to stay dry and then ran into the building. The damp air felt like dust in Bryan’s lungs, he looked around and then upstairs. He found the first real bed that he’s seen in almost three weeks since the Chicago evacuation. As he lay down on the soft cushioning blanket allowing the heat to soak through his cold clothes, he looked over and then noticed that the closet door in the bedroom he had discovered had been moved. He sat up and asked in a low whisper
“who’s there?” he thought that he heard a low guttering growl. ‘I’m dead there’s a feral in the closet and I’m dead.’
Just as he started to slowly get up and walk away when a large German shepherd landed on his chest. All he could think about was ‘I’m dead’ too scared to scream or move he allowed the animal to stare him in the eye. He could see that the animal was protecting its home even if it meant killing a human that could threaten it.
“Down Mitzie” a female voice had just exploded in his head he wasn’t sure if he was just imagining it or if there was a real person in the room with him. But he was shortly convinced when a girl about his age had grabbed the dog.
She looked like an angel to his sore eyes that had only seen three things over the last few weeks that was death, monsters, and his brother. She had been the most beautiful girl he ad ever seen in his life.
Back before the war he had a new girl every other weekend it seemed most were his friends but no more than that. Her dirty blond hair was long to about the middle of her back. She was also thin but not too thin it must have been from the food shortage.
“Who are you and what are you doing in my house” Bryan was surprised she was asking such a rude question here he was and it was practically the end of the world the time when all humans need to trust each other the most and she was asking his motives.
“My name is Bryan fisher I’ve been walking from Chicago, and my brother and I were passing through and we stopped for the night to hide.”*
The teen was mesmerized by her deep amber eyes which was in contrast to her white skin along with her hair she sat on a chair in the corner. He looked around and realized this was in fact a girl’s room that he had stumbled upon.
“My names Stephanie I’ve grown up here in new haven all my life and I’m not planning on leaving so you can stay till morning but you have to leave in the morning” she had a look of panic across her beautiful unscathed face. He wasn’t sure if she really meant what she said. She was about to ask if he was looking her over when there was a gun blast. Bryan looked at his watch 3: 00 only three hours left before sunlight the Ferals had followed them there to the girls house.
The dog immediately jumped to the door after a scream had arose from the closed door of his brother. During the confusion Bryan stepped back and grabbed the girls hand as she retreated to the closet. There were continuous screams from john of different insults and cursing along with pained screams of the monsters as the gun blasts tore the sounds around them Stephanie called to the dog that had stayed at the door growling and barking through the mess until all sounds stopped they waited for what seemed like an hour for any sound that told them the outcome of the battle nose they just heard.
Stephanie was starting to cry as she looked out the closet and then quietly begged the dog to come to the closet. The shepherd looked back at the two teens and cocked its head and turned back to the door as the door was splintered into a thousand and one tiny pieces as the bigger of the two animals latched its huge jaws on the dog’s neck breaking it and leaving the carcass to fall to the ground after shaking the dog like a rag doll.
As the larger animal roared Bryan looked in the mirror and noticed this one compared to his friend resembled a lion instead of a dog. The lion-man had just seen him as he shrank back deeper into the closet. Stephanie was trying hard not to cry over the loss of her only companion.
As the large jungle cat had just bent into pounce formation it caught the whiff of a third person in the room. As it turned the last thing it saw was a bullet enter its eye straight to its wild brain.
“You can come out now kid” Bryan immediately recognized the voice as that of his brother.
“What happened I thought you were dead!” said Bryan as he and Stephanie stepped out.
“Don’t worry about it” John said as he threw the gun at his younger sibling. Bryan caught it and gave him a quizzical look.
“What are you giving me this for?” asked Bryan as he catches the bullets and a knife. Bryan looked at the item in his hands and realized that John had given him his favorite knife, the same one he wouldn’t even allow Bryan to think about touching just a day earlier.
“I want you to shoot me and then get your little friend outta here for you own safety.”
Bryan then noticed the growing blood stain coming from Johns shoulder.
“No I can’t do that John” John was starting to have twitches as his proportions grew larger.
“Do it Bryan I don’t want to be one of those things” John yelled angrily as he started to get taller. “I juiced in the army so the genetic effects are increasing speed, within seconds I’m going to kill you”.
Bryan closed his eyes as his brother started to scream and roar as the blast echoed through the room. He started to brake down as he realized he was in the arms of the girl he looked at her and realized she too was crying and had her hand over his on the gun. Both teens had pulled the trigger and killed John Bryan’s only real friend.
“Its ok Bryan” she said in his ear and told him how she also had to kill her father and mother after they had turned feral.
They sat in silence until Bryans watch alarm had awoken both teens. As they stood and looked out the window as most of the feral creatures man created started to creep away from the house. Bryan looked and saw Raft among them. It was dawn in new haven and the peace had just began to flow from the area as Bryan looked out at the mustang in the garage.